Deep Point of View

Deep point of view allows the reader to feel and experience exactly what our characters feel and experience. Authors who do deep point of view well often create stories that are highly engaging – where the characters come to life and the reader gets lost in the pages.

Once we get the hang of it, deep point of view takes our writing to the next level.

So when I saw a tweet about this book called Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View, free on Kindle for a limited time, I was immediately intrigued. I hadn’t read a craft book in awhile, so I hopped on over and downloaded it.

I’m super glad I did.

It is a super quick (it’ll take you an hour, tops), informative read.

Not only did I freshen up on some important writing techniques, I now have a craft book I can recommend to lots and lots of writers.

The author (Jill Elizabeth Nelson) addresses techniques that so many writers fail to employ.

Mistakes I see all the time whenever I critique a piece of writing or judge a contest entry.

Two of the BIGGIES:

Authorial Intrusions

Prepositional Tells

Authorial Intrusions

Anytime you put an invisible narrator between the reader and the character, you’ve inserted an authorial intrusion.

Phrases like she wondered, she felt, she saw, she wished, she decided are all examples. Purging them from your manuscript will take your prose to the next level.

For example:

She realized where she put her purse.

Can be changed to…

Oh, right. That’s where she left her purse.

Another example:

She spotted the lime green bike swerving through traffic.

Can be changed to…

The lime green bike swerved through traffic.

Super easy, right?

In both of these examples, the first version creates distance between the reader and the character. In the second, the reader is inside the character’s head.

Prepositional Telling

I see this one ALL the time! I catch myself doing it too.

She nodded in agreement.

She frowned with displeasure.

He jumped up and whooped with glee.

His stomach clenched in fear.

Nix the prepositional telling!

Your writing will be so much stronger for it.

Nodding implies agreement, right?

Frowning implies displeasure.

Jumping and whooping usually go hand in hand with glee.

And a clenched stomach is often indicative of fear or nerves.

Believe in the context you’ve created and trust that your readers are intelligent enough to make some logical inferences.

So there you go.

A small taste of the many tips and tricks this book has to offer.

The e-book version is only $2.99 on Amazon right now. I highly recommend!

Let’s Talk: Have you read any novels that nailed deep point of view – where you truly felt and experienced what the characters felt and experienced? Please share them here!

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27 thoughts on “Deep Point of View”

Did you know you can make it deeper? I found a blog article about this somewhere, and you can take out that she in the sentence there and change it.

Oh, right. That’s where it is! She snatched up the purse running out the door.

It just requires more words. 😛 This pov is fun, there’s so many ways to do it. I personalty like to do less deep time transitions, other people want them in the characters pov. *shrug* They are all good.

Jessica

July 8, 2016

The first ten chapters are free of this problem. (Yay!) Now to go check the rest. 46 more to go. Anyone got an extra energy drink? 😉

Thanks for this Katie, a really helpful reminder. And I downloaded this book. Its great of you to share the wealth!
P.S. Good luck with your auction. And as I said, if you offer a critique I will definitely bid

Katie Ganshert

June 19, 2012

Hey Sally! Hmm….I’ll have to think about that! Are you thinking a partial critique? Like the first however-many pages?

Didn’t have this one, but have downloaded it. Sounds like a great book on the craft of writing. Looking forward to reading it and then implementing the teaching into my writing. Thanks, Katie, for the info.

I grabbed the book when it was free, but haven’t read it yet. Good to know it’s a quick read.

I had never heard of deep POV until after I’d written my first ms. But my Genesis judges pointed out my tendency to point out stuff the character wouldn’t have noticed or pointed out. I’ve been attempting to chop out that stuff now!

These are great tips and examples. I first heard the advice to avoid “she wondered, she knew, etc” from Susan May Warren and that tip alone changed my understanding of deep point of view. Good stuff! I nabbed up Jill Elizabeth Nelson’s book when it was free, too, but haven’t had a chance to read it yet. Pretty sure that needs to happen…tonight! 🙂